14 November 2012

How To Make a Proper Cup of Tea

OUR WHOLE LIFE COULD BE A RITUAL

We could learn to stop when the sun goes down and when the sun comes up. We could learn to listen to the wind; we could learn to notice that it’s raining or snowing or hailing or calm. We could reconnect with the weather that is ourselves, and we could realize that it’s sad. The sadder it is, and the vaster it is, the more our heart opens. We can stop thinking that good practice is when it’s smooth and calm, and bad practice is when it’s rough and dark. If we can hold it all in our hearts, then we can make a proper cup of tea.

- Pema Chodron

My friend, Erin, over at In Search of White Space has been delving deeply and stirring up questions of who I am and why I'm here and what life is really about. When I read the above quote today from Pema Chodron I felt a click inside, a deep 'yes' that attention to what is, and holding it in my heart without judgement of good or bad is my way forward. Then I re-saw the photos of my grandchildren with their knowing of that truth. I made myself a cup of tea.

pema chodron caused a click in me too, when i needed it most. it is uncanny, i think, how this happens. we must be open enough in those moments to receive the instigation for the click. i owe her a debt of gratitude.

simone weil writes a great deal about attention also. of course, every poet/philosopher, that is really what they are writing about, or at least the great ones:) "Attention, taken to its highest degree, is the same thing as prayer. It presupposes faith and love."

we are truly being here, i think, when we pay attention and by paying attention, by being here, we are giving thanks.

(i'm thankful for you, mary, and your patience. it was just today by some click of the brain...i have been wondering all this time...why don't i get mary's posts? and i clicked through to see...and then i saw. how could it have been that i was not following you? something led me here today:))) this is true.

there is GREAT ritual in pouring tea. i have had a personal argument with ritual. sometimes, i have argued, it can be empty and non-thinking, but as i am learning it can be a way to fashion the attention in a moment. these children certainly seem to be engrossed:))

Glad you found your way over here, Erin. I like the quote about attention/prayer. I was amazed at how very much my grandchildren liked having tea parties. I figured my granddaughter would based on some of her other likes but my grandson also requested them daily.

I smiled at the tea. I also have felt what Erin said in her comment, that rituals are not necessarily important. But just last night (before reading here) I was reveling in ritual and recognizing that it is one of the healing ways of attention. It is important to have things that you love, material things, to hold, clink, drink from, to bodily live and partake of with loved ones. These photos are precious, and I am moved by them. I realize now that I must have tea with James when he is old enough. (His dad is a great tea drinker.)

I must say that Erin is always a source of inspiration. She has changed how I think and feel.

When my grands were here they so enjoyed our daily tea and requested it if I forgot, including my grandson. I cherish the memories. When my grandson came alone this summer he again asked for our tea together. Making memories.

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About Me

As an ancestor in training I'm staying active and alert in this my middle decade of old age. In my first decade I retired and moved to Antigua and Italy to have adventures in other cultures. Traveling around the Caribbean and Europe for nine years grew me out of my too- small self and gave me a bigger world view and my place in it. That was quite an education. I'm married to my best friend and main squeeze for 44 years and have a daughter who's saving the rain forest together with her husband. Through her two children's tutelage I'm learning how to grandmother. It's a work in progress demanding fierce love, scoops of creativity as well as considerable fun along the way. I love my life.

Show up & Show Your Soul

We are needed, that is all we can know. …One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to show up and show your soul….To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these- to be fierce and to show mercy toward others; both are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. (Clarissa Pinkola Estes)